A Grinning Shadow
by JazzBerryTigerCandy
Summary: Lost and confused, a shadow-like humanoid does it's best fitting back into the real world after be trapped for centuries and tries to discover it's past. Along the way it questions good and evil, picks a side and tries to assimilate itself into the human world. Which is hard when you aren't made out flesh and bone, and your only friend is a witch-boy who cares more about his cat...
1. Porcelain Hell

Wind shifted through the open window and tousled the golden sheer curtains throughout the sparking room. Light flooded into the large room, making the gilded walls and ivory floors shimmer brightly. Outside, a blue sky spread over an eternal garden of large and beautiful roses. Here, there was no pain, there was no hunger, there was no night. Only eternal youth and large empty house filled with golden plates and marble statues. It was a beautiful palace, but a hell nonetheless and there was no escape. Here, hours turned into days and days faded into weeks and it was impossible to keep track of time because the sun never set over the gilded palace. It was a very beautiful prison, but agonizing nonetheless.

It was impossible to fly away, the sky was made out of glass walls. There was no place to run, the captive would only circle around and return to the very place it tried to escape. No matter how hard they tried, they could not die, jumping off the roof, stabbing itself, it couldn't even try bleed itself out. Little by little the prisoner lost feeling, the ability to move, and could no longer breathe,their body seemed to be fading away and they began to forget who they used to be. It was impossible to count time here, and the sun was their only companion.

Long white hair sprawled across the white ivory floor and tall white figure sat in isolation next to the window unmoving. It had forgotten what they had done to deserve this decorated hell. They had forgotten a lot of things, like who did this to them, and what was like it outside the glass walls. Years had no meaning in this here, and this emptiness was eternal, _until that day the sky split in two, taking everything else with it._


	2. First Impressions: Batman

A common thief rummaged through the shelves of a closed antique store, looking for a specific jewelry box. He was hired to retrieve a stolen jewelry box that was an expensive family heirloom. After several minutes of searching through dark and dusty shelves he found it in the back, covered in dust and cobwebs, forgotten. After brushing it off he observed that it was made out of ivory and moon stones. "Damnit," he said harshly, it wasn't what he was looking for, it wasn't even a jewelry box, didn't open at all and was completely useless. His thoughts were interrupted when the shop owner's little dog began barking, ratting him out. He grabbed of few shiny looking things and opened the door to the alley.

Running into the pouring rain the thief could hear the shop owner's enraged cries. He ran faster, his heavy shoes slamming onto the wet pavement, the down-pour stinging his face and blurring his vision. The shop owner shot a few rounds at him, trying to slow him down.

In an act of desperation the thief ran into the street, jumping over a few cars, but the rain didn't allow the cars to stop from crashing into him.

His body lay face down on the ground, they ivory box cracked in half, black ooze bubbling out onto the damp, cold and gritty pavement.

People gathered around the body like it was some twisted spectacle, entertainment from their dull lives. The crowd recoiled in disgust and horror when they noticed black ooze crawl back into the body, and reanimate it. The thief's head was crushed and his spine seemed broken. The body stood up but the top half of the torso flopped backwards, created a wet crunching noise when ever it moved. His glazed eyes showed no expression as they stared upside-down at the people behind him, causing a few to retch. Some spectators took pictures with their phones while others in a mindless panic shoved people to the ground to get away.

The mind of the ooze however, was going a mile a minute. It could sense the presence of other energy. Their fear. It intrigued and excited it, making it feel stronger. Their fear energized it, making it feel alive. The body grinned, of course it wasn't the man, but the monster inside the man. It walked towards them backwards, hoping to get a little more fear out of the crowd. It drove them nuts but they started to run away to the monster's disappointment. This body is too slow…

Suddenly the body was tied down by a strong rope. The parasitic monster screamed and thrashed around, creating more loud snaps in the spine. It hissed at it's captor, a large ebony human, with two horns and boneless wings. It's vacant eyes unnerved the shadow, so reluctantly, it left it's host's body behind, and slithered away like any good shadow would. The body went limp and smashed it's face on the pavement. Commissioner Gordon walked up to Batman, smoking his pipe.

"What the hell was that?" The caped crusader kneeled down beside the body. "Don't Know. Looked like some sort of possession, whatever it was it left. Any useful information from witnesses? Did it kill him?" He said turning towards Gordon, who was reading his notes. "No, apparently a shop owner was chasing him with a gun, before he knew it he knew it the victim was hit by a car, he died instantly. Witnesses say a black substance came from the broken ivory case the man was carrying from the shop owners store, we have a lot of questions still, and are taking the shop owner for a few questions, no one is being charged with the victim's death, and the man who hit him had car insurance. The substance didn't cause any injuries." Gordon sighed. "Look, it's almost morning and we just don't have the manpower to go looking for it and still respond to other crimes scenes where we can prevent people getting hurt. Do what you please with the information but you really should get some rest and even if you did find it you wouldn't really be able to do anything yet. With this Gordon patted his shoulder. "Do me a favor and go get some shut-eye, tomorrow might be a busy night."

With this the human tank traveled back home just as the morning sun came up. "Hello master Bruce, I was wondering what took you so long." Alfred said helping off his cape. "Would you like some tea sir? To help you sleep?" But the look in his eyes told Alfred he wanted coffee. He smiled and shook his head as he walked upstairs to the kitchen. That man never sleeps. Meanwhile Bruce Wayne tried researching "possession" on his computer, but only found demon folklore. Unfortunately the only available person he knew had information about such dark thing was a magician and certain witch-boy. Seeing that his first option was currently possessed by the God of Order he would need to find find Dr. Fate or Klarion, neither person he was looking forward to and they both could end up causing problems to the investigation. He deciding to go to sleep and let his fatigued mind rest. He was already in bed when Alfred came back with his coffee. "Good morning mast Bruce" He said quietly shutting the door.


	3. Morbid Curiosity

Over the week the little shadow stayed huddled up in the darkest corners in the city of Gotham, it's mad rush from a few days ago was over, and now it was just lost and confused. " _Where am I? Who am I here? What am I? How did I end up here"_ Raced through it's mind constantly. It was all alone, and anxious. To keep itself busy the shadow stalked the people of Gotham, trying to learn the way of the humans, but they were too complex to copy just yet, so it's main disguise was small animals, at the moment, a cat. The first thing that they noticed about all humans is that humans all assign a name and a gender to themselves. Unfortunately the shadow had neither a name or a body, and never gave much thought on whether or not if it was a boy or a girl, but being a shadow without a companion was a very lonely existence, every shadow had something to keep it company except for this one.

It watched people in the windows of the restaurant lazily, its blue cat eyes silently studying them on the street curb. A blushing man was talking to a lady at the bar, she seemed completely uninterested and on her phone. She had long tan legs and blonde hair. Despite her beauty her eyes remained cold. Another couple sat a table, were laughing and staring at eachother, and in the opposite corner were two lovers arguing. " _You'd think they'd have something more interesting to do_ " the shadow thought to itself. Bored, the shadow-cat left its perch and walked back into the alley, away from the street lights.

Everything was wet and damp and dark in the alleys, there wasn't much light, and it was so quiet you could hear the rain fall on the rooftops high above. The alleys seemed to breathe with life at night when the little shadow was all alone in the dark,and it was a quiet company they enjoyed, the alleys' company wasn't like the humans. The only problem was that every once in awhile, the little shadow monster would run into humans in the alleys, sometimes just two. sometimes more, and these humans would do the cruelest of things to each other, robbery, murder, pointless assaults...

The shadow couldn't understand it, but assumed that's how people were, and returned their cruelty, hoping that it would help the shadow fit in. This backfired horribly and would only make them fear her…. Yes… _her….._ She decided she felt more like a _her_ than a he… _. Maybe_. She did not care, but her writer was very pleased that she no longer had to use gender neutral pronouns, _and no_ , the shadow did not mind breaking the fourth wall once in awhile.

The shadow could not understand why humans were so cruel to each other if they did not like being treated the same way. She would watch them writhe in pain and scream, and she couldn't help but feel a strange twinge in her. It almost felt as if what she was doing was bad, but she didn't have a body and was fascinated by their display of pain, and wondered what it felt like to be human.

The cat stared absently at its victim, it was starting to get bored of his struggling, and watched him squirm on the ground, clawing at his own throat. His veins blackened and he couldn't breathe. Finally he passed out and stopped squirming. As the shadow-cat got up to walk away a huge light flooded the alley and surrounded the little shadow. Looking up at the sky she saw a huge helicopter coming her way.


	4. Cat Trap

" _Well this is just great"_ Catwoman thought to herself as she ran down Gotham's rooftops. It seems as if her new target, a blue diamond, was just a trap to catch her. She managed to get out of the building before security showed up, but the cops were already waiting for her before she even broke into the museum. They shot at her but she was happy she got away with just a few minor wounds. She hugged her bleeding side as she leapt to the next rooftop, almost slipping on it's wet tiles. " _Damn"_ It hadn't stopped raining all night and now she really wished she had slept in instead of going out. Things only got worse far as a helicopter for _The Daily Gotham_ rose from behind her. "What the hell…" She hissed, she didn't want anyone to she her like this, let alone all of Gotham. This night just kept getting worse and worse for her. She clumsily leapt onto an old fire escape,and it immediately crashed to the ground, talking her down with it. Hugging her side she hid in the darkness and took a breather, looking over her injuries. Whoever hit her was a good shot.

The helicopter hovered over the alley next to her but she didn't dare to get up. Just then she heard a an annoyed yowl. She looked up and met a pair of two electric blue eyes, it was a frowning black cat. She snatched it up and held it close. "Shhh kitty, they'll find us..." She looked down at the cat sweetly. Black cats were her good luck charm, and she could use some comfort right now. They both sat in silence as the rain continued to fall rhythmically onto the city around them.

The cat kinda just went limp in her arms, as if not sure how to react. "Are you playing opossum?" She said smirking at the cat. The cat growled at her but refused to move. Eventually the helicopter veered away from the two, continuing to look for her in the wrong direction. Taking a good look before she left Catwomen gingerly got up, holding her wounds. "Damn…" She winced in pain. The cat continued to stare at her blankly, and it unnerved her. She looked at the the cat.. "Thanks for being my good luck charm..." she said somewhat apathetically. The cat's scowl seemed to deepen. Suddenly feeling uneasy, Catwoman then turned and laboriously climbed up the side of the building back home. She rolled over the edge of the rooftop and onto her back, breathing a heavy sigh. " _This is getting hard."_ Every time she moved she agitated the wound farther, and she had already lost so much blood. Looking up at the raining sky she felt her eyes grow heavy and her vision was starting to blur. As her world began to fade she saw a tall dark creature blankly stare down at her. Two vivid, unsympathetic, electric blue eyes were the last thing she saw that night.


End file.
